Arkansas Law Against Homosexual Acts Challenged in Court

MSNBC, May 31, 1998

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  An attorney arguing in court Friday against an
Arkansas law barring homosexual sex said that the courts would never tolerate such a law
if it applied to sex between people of different races instead of homosexuals.

The lawyer, Suzanne Goldberg, said that was one analogy she offered Pulaski County
Chancellor Collins Kilgore in a hearing Friday morning. The hearing was on a motion filed
by the state attorney generals office to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the organization
that Goldberg represents, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund of New York. The
group is challenging Arkansas law banning homosexual anal and oral sex. Kilgore took
the motion under advisement, giving no indication when he might rule on the request for
dismissal.

Arkansas is one of six states with sodomy laws limited specifically to homosexual
conduct. The others are Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Maryland.